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Comment by criddell | Hacker News Reader

I'm visiting London this summer (I'm from Texas).

Normally, I pay for everything with American Express. Would you recommend I get a different card for London? I wonder if there's a US card that support chip and pin?

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A lot of businesses in the UK/Europe do not accept American Express due to higher fees. You would be better off getting a different card preferably that supports contactless payments so you could use it on the tube and buses instead of an Oyster card (remember to touch it on the way out as well).

https://tfl.gov.uk/fares-and-payments/contactless

A Revolut card supports chip and pin and contactless, I'm not sure if it's 100% launched for US customers yet though: https://www.revolut.com/us/

Upvote and reply, because Revolut is a dream. Prepaid so fraud is minimum risk (no possible overdraft), top up via mobile app, disable the card when you're not using it. It's so convenient that I use it to buy from shady sites (game keys, in game currency etc) and just disable the card once the purchase is complete. I can't believe it's still free.

Sorry for gushing. I love Revolut.

Mostly it's fine using AMEX. There's enough exceptions I carry another card, but it's not that bad.

Also: TFL accept AMEX contactless as payment/oyster equivalent.

Most businesses now do support Amex -- there's been a major shift in the last few years.

You'll find a number of places that don't take American Express, so have an alternative with you. If you have Apple or Android Pay, that'll cover you for most purchases under £100 (under £30 in some places with outdated tech).

> under £30 in some places with outdated tech

under £30 with our brand new chip an pin machines too. I am supposed to make a load of calls this week to try and resolve it...

In some places more than that. I think my record with Android pay so far is around £180.

I traveled all over England this last year with a Chase Visa. No problem the majority of places, but definitely a few places that were inconvenienced by having to pull a signature pad out from under a pile of stuff because no one's used it in months, and a few places that asked me to just pay in cash. I would expect London itself to see enough foreign traffic to be more accepting in this regard, though.

> Normally, I pay for everything with American Express. Would you recommend I get a different card for London? I wonder if there's a US card that support chip and pin?

Amex isn't as widely accepted outside the US. If you have a Visa or Mastercard, bring that.

Almost all credit cards issued in the US now support EMV chips. They almost never support PINs, but that doesn't actually matter because all merchants are required to be able to accept all three.

I've traveled all over the world, and never once has this been an issue. Nobody's even batted an eyelid when I give them a US-issued card. Except, of course, for places which only accept cash, but that's a separate question.

Get an ATM card and take cash out of a machine when you get to London. Seriously, this works well, you get a fair exchange rate, and most places still take cash.

But it is easier to use plastic in the Tube, as others have said.

Honestly, if you have a Visa/Mastercard with no foreign transaction fees then just use Apple Pay/Samsung Pay. It's almost ubiquitously used in the UK, and would be very rare to find somewhere that didn't take it.

If your phone supports it, a lot of places accept Apple Pay and Android Pay now. Just set them up with your card then pay contactlessly.

Of course you still have the problem that not eveywhere takes Amex, so getting a Visa is recommended too.

Credit cards in general are not too popular in Europe, they're either not accepted at all or only Visa and Mastercard are accepted. A Maestro debit card is your best bet and will work in almost all terminals in Europe.

This is not at all true of London. Last time I was there I didn’t even get local currency as I used credit for everything.

That is two different things.

Paying by card is very common in some countries (Northern Europe, France), paying by credit card is common in some (UK, Ireland), paying by cash is common in others (Germany).

It's not possible to generalize all of Europe for any of these, except to say that all EU/EEA countries have modern systems.

(For example, there are restaurants in Sweden that don't take cash, and restaurants in Germany that don't take any cards, restaurants in Denmark that charge an extra 2% if you use a credit card rather than a debit card, and restaurants in Britain that happily accept the 5% it costs them to accept AmEx.)

Which bit of Europe do you mean? I live in Europe and almost always use card.

All stores still accept signature payments. Although not everywhere accepts AMEX due to the higher merchant fees.

Not necessarily — you might have trouble buying a laptop or phone without a PIN, for example.

(It may be possible, but require the manager's discretion or authorization.)

Make sure the back of your card is signed, though, and make sure to sign your receipt the same way. I had more store clerks questioning my signature on a 1 week trip to London than in a decade of using a CC in the US.

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